Conventionally, when an information search is to be made by using packet communication with a radio portable terminal such as a cell phone, a search word is selected from search items displayed on the screen of the cell phone with the cursor or a search word is input as characters by operating keys on the cell phone, and the search word is transmitted in the form of a packet to an information source (contents provider). The information source then packets information found with the search word and sends back it to the cell phone, thereby displaying the information on the screen of the cell phone.
In the method of selecting a search word with the cursor in this manner, if there are many search words, they cannot be displayed on the screen of the cell phone at once. For this reason, a user selects a search word while switching windows. It, however, takes much time to reach a target search word. In addition, in the method of inputting a search word as characters by operating key buttons on the cell phone, since the keys on the cell phone are small, and multiple-character keys are used, cumbersome, time-consuming operation is required.
Information searches using speech communication with a cell phone are also available. In this case, an uttered search word is subjected to speech recognition, and information is found from an information source with the search word. This information is then converted into speech and sent back to the cell phone.
In such search by speech recognition using speech communication, although a search word can be input by speech with a cell phone, a search result is not left as a record because it is sent back by speech. In addition, image information cannot be sent back to the cell phone.